Mechanically operable brush



Nov. 2, 1965 L. BERCOVITZ 3,214,776

MECHANICALLY OPERABLE BRUSH Filed Dec. 3, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORA23 Louis BERCOVITZ ATTORNEY Nov. 2, 1965 L. BERCOVITZ MECHANICALLYOPERABLE BRUSH 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 3, 1965 INVENTOR LouisBERCOVITZ PATENT AGENTS ATTORNEY United States Patent Office 3,214,776Patented Nov. 2, 1965 3,214,776 MECHANICALLY OPERABLE BRUSH LouisBercovitz, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Louber Corporation,Montreal, Quebec, Canada Filed Dec. 3, 1963, Ser. No. 327,720 12 Claims.(Cl. 1526) This invention relates to a hand-actuated oscillatablemechanical brush, and is specially applicable to toothbrushes.

Mechanical toothbrushes, in which there is an oscillating movement ofthe brush are known in the prior art. Most of these devices have beenrelatively complicated. Many have employed electrical motive power orother complex drive mechanism and have been outside the realm ofpractically for one reason, or another.

It is an aim of the present invention to provide a toothbrush of simplepractical construction which is oscillatable manually, by squeezing togive a radially rotating recipro cal motion to the brush, so that thebristles can be moved up and down the teeth and in the intersticesthereof, as prescribed by dentists while the hand is kept relatively inthe same position. Briefly, a toothbrush according to the inventioncomprises a one-piece bow member which has as integral parts anelongated main body having a socket receiving the end of a brush shaft,and a spaced apart lever arm articulated thereto by a resilient elbownormally urging it away from the body. The crank arm has a crankconnection with the brush shaft so that when the crank arm is squeezedtoward the body and allowed to return to its at rest position, areciprocal rotary motion is given to the brush shaft. The material fromwhich the device is made is sufliciently resilient at the elbow which isthin, but stiff enough so that the thick parts like the body and crankarm are substantially rigid.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of the preferred form of toothbrush showingthe initial position of the hand.

FIGURE 2 is a front elevation of the toothbrush of FIGURE 1 showing theposition of the hand and the varions positions of the toothbrush inaction.

FIGURE 3 is a cross-section of the toothbrush along the line 33 ofFIGURE 11.

FIGURE 4 is a vertical cross-section along the axis, partly inelevation, of the toothbrush shown in FIG- URE 1.

FIGURE 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the various parts ofthe toothbrush.

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary detail view showing another way of mountingthe crank on the shaft of the toothbrush.

FIGURE 7 is a side elevation showing an auxiliary denture brushattachment.

FIGURE 8 is a cross-section as along the line 8-8 of FIGURE 7.

FIGURE 9 is a similar cross-section to FIGURE 8 showing the springaction of the auxiliary denture brushretaining clip.

FIGURE 10 is an enlarged schematic front elevation showing the movementof the brush relative to teeth and gums.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the structure of thepreferred toothbrush shown in FIGURES 1 to 5 is as follows. It includesa one-piece bow A, manipulable by squeezing, and made up of a bodyhaving at its forward end a thumb rest 39, and merging at its rear endinto an integral curved flexible ligament 17 integrally connected to alever 19 extending abreast of the body 15 and spaced apart from it. Theforward end of the lever 19 is provided with a finger 21 which extendsinwardly toward the front of the body 15.

In the preferred form shown, the bow A is made of solid plastic materialwhich is rigid at the thick parts but sufficiently resilient at theligament 17 to allow flexing. The bow A is made so that the lever 19 isnormally biased away from the position shown in FIGURE 1, as forexample, shown in FIGURE 5, so that the lever 19 has to be urged underpressure against the resilience of the ligament 17 to assume theposition shown in FIGURE 1. The lever 19 is preferably provided withfinger indentations 23.

The body 15 is provided with a lengthwise extending bore 25 constitutinga socket receiving rotatably the inner end of a shaft 27 which, at itsouter end, carries a brush 29 of the toothbrush type.

Extending laterally from the shaft 25 is a crank arm 31 carrying aforwardly extending crank pin 33 which ongages in an opening 35 in theend of the finger 21. A part collar 37 extends forwardly at the forwardend of the body 15', as best shown in FIGURE 5, about a radius ofsomewhat less than The ends of the collar 37 constitute stops to limitthe oscillatory movement of the shaft 27 in either radial direction, inthe lower direction to retain the crank arm to one side so that it willrespond to an upward pull and in the upper direction so that the arm 21does not strike the shaft 27, although the latter is not necessary asthe shaft 27 will limit further upward movement of the arm 21.

The shaft 27 is thus normally held in the position it assumes, with thecrank arm 31 downmost because it is urged to this position by theresiliency of the bow A.

In operation, the bow A is alternatively squeezed and released betweenthe thumb and fingers, as will be clear from FIGURE 1. Moving the lever19 relative to the body 15, this oscillates the shaft 27 radially andconsequently the brush 29 radially back and forth as shown in FIGURE 2.

The shaft 27 can be made from a plastic material and the arm 31 and itspin 33 cast integrally with it. In an alternative construction shown inFIGURE 6, the crank arm 131 and pin 133 form the part of a metal memberone end of which is embedded in the shaft 127, as shown in FIGURE 6.

A denture brush 241 (FIGURES 7 to 10) mounted on elongated shell clip243 is shown attached to the body 15. This brush can be removed from thebody, as shown in FIGURE 9 or it can be rotated to 180 so as to protrudefrom the body and the bow A used as a handle when applying the denturebrush to brushing dentures.

The exact structures of the toothbrush, its parts and subcombinationsare capable of variation within the spirit of the invention. In thepreferred forms of toothbrush shown the brush shaft is a male part whichenters a female part. The opposite could be true and the brush shaftcould be provided with a female part which engages with a male partextending from the body. Likewise, the crank pin could be reversed andapplied to the operating finger, instead of the opposite, as shown.

The bow-like handle is made of a single piece of plastic material(desirably by molding), as shown. Nylon is one suitable plasticmaterial, but other material may be used, as will be understood by oneskilled in the art. It is also preferable that the brush shaft 27 andits crank arm 31 and pin 33 be an integral plastic molded piece,although this structure can be varied. The pin 133 should be parallel tothe shaft 127 in order to give good action. The device may be relativelyinexpensive and is practical, simple, and foolproof. The bow-like handlemember is believed to be new, of itself.

I claim:

1. A brush, comprising, a brush shaft, a one-piece bowlike squeezehandle having an elongated rigid body including means for receiving saidbrush shaft at one end and at the other end a flexible resilient elbowmerging into an arm extending abreast and spaced from the body, andcrank means operatively connecting the part of the arm remote from theelbow with said brush shaft whereby reciprocal movement is imparted tothe brush shaft when the arm is squeezed towards the body and released.

2. A brush, as defined in claim 1, said crank means comprising a crankextending laterally from said brush shaft and a crank pin extendingforward from said crank, said arm terminating at the end remote fromsaid el bow in a finger extending towards said body and provided with anopening engaging the pin on said crank shaft. 3. A brush, as defined inclaim 1, in which the said one end of the body includes a bore receivingthe brush shaft and a semi-collar at the end of the bore with a gap, anda crank extending from said brush shaft and provided with a crank pin,said crank being accommodated by said gap and a finger extending fromsaid arm and provided with an opening receiving said crank pin.

4. A brush, as defined in claim 1, in which the handle at said one endincludes a bore receiving the end of the brush shaft.

5. A brush, as defined in claim 1, in which said arm is provided withspaced-apart indentations for receiving the fingers and said body isprovided at the side remote from the arm with a boss for resting thethumb.

6. A brush comprising, in combination, a rotatable brush shaft and aone-piece handle member for mounting said rotatable brush shaft, saidmember comprising, an elongated overall cylindrical body including afront part provided with a bore adapted to receive a brush shaft forreciprocal rotating movement and a rearv part merging into an integralelbow merging into an integral arm extending abreast of the body andspaced therefrom, said arm terminating in a finger extending inwardlytoward the front end of the body and being provided near its end with anopening adapted to engage a crank pin on the brush shaft, said elbowbeing a relatively thin U-shaped part and being resilient from a firstposition in which the finger is relatively removed from the body to asecond position in which the finger is relatively close to the body,said elbow being resilient to urge the arm to said first position, saidbody, arm and finger being substantially rigid parts.

7. A brush, as defined in claim 6, in which the side of the arm remotefrom the body is provided with finger receiving indentations and thefront end of the body at the side remote from the arm'is provided with athumb rest.

8. A brush, as defined in claim 1 in which said handle is molded fromplastic material.

9. A brush member for-a rotary brush of the type described, comprising ashaft having a brush at one end thereof and a portion at the other endthereof forming a shank adapted to engage a socket, a crank armextending laterally of said shaft at a location intermediate said oneand other ends, said crank arm having a free end and an end joined tosaid shaft, and a crank pin extending parallel to said shaft from saidfree end of said crank arm, said shaft, crank arm and crank pin beingintegrally moulded from plastic material.

10. A brush member for a rotary brush of the type I described,comprising a shaft of moulded plastic material having a brush at one endthereof and a portion at the other end thereof forming a shank adaptedto engage a socket, a crank arm extending laterally of said shaft at alocation intermediate said one and other ends, said crank arm being ametallic piece having one of its ends embedded in the plastic materialconstituting said shaft and its other end free, and a crank pin integralwith said crank arm and extending parallel to said shaft.

11. A toothbrush comprising, in combination, a onepiece handle, and aone-piece brush element including a shaft and a crank and crank pinintegral with said shaft, said handle comprising an elongated rigid bodyhaving one and other ends, an arm extending abreast and spaced apartfrom said body and having one and other ends, a relatively resilient,flexible elbow merging at one of its ends with said one end of said bodyand at the other of its ends with said one end of said arm, a socket atsaid other end of said body adapted to receive said shaft, and a fingerextending from a part of said arm remote from said one end and co-actingwith said crank pin whereby reciprocating movements of said arm towardsand away from said body produce oscillating rotary movements of saidshaft.

12. A toothbrush according to claim 11 in which I said brush elementcomprises bristles having free ends terminating at substantiallyconstant distance from the axis of said shaft.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,257,883 2/18Kone 15 26 2,232,269 2/41 Rueben 15l67 X 3,072,938 1/63 Phaneuf 1522CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner.

1. A BRUSH, COMPRISING, A BRUSH SHAFT, A ONE-PIECE BOWLIKE SQUEEZEHANDLE HAVING AN ELONGATED RIGID BODY INCLUDING MEANS FOR RECEIVING SAIDBRUSH AT ONE END AND AT THE OTHER END A FLEXIBLE RESILIENT ELBOW MERGINGINTO AN ARM EXTENDING ABREAST AND SPACED FROM THE BODY, AND CRANK MEANSOPERATIVELY CONNECTING THE PART OF THE